


with or without you

by nigoi



Series: in love with matsukaze tenma [2]
Category: Inazuma Eleven GO
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mostly Canon Compliant, Nozaki Sakura Is Bad At Remembering Names, POV Nozaki Sakura, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 10:32:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16473887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigoi/pseuds/nigoi
Summary: Every hour—no, every minute of every day, Matsukaze Tenma plays football.Sakura makes a point of not associating with people like that, even if they have a cute puppy.





	with or without you

**Author's Note:**

> this came to be when i realised both tenma and sakura lived in okinawa when they were little, and, so, here it is.
> 
> (they're seven in the first scene btw)

Every hour—no, every minute of every day, Matsukaze Tenma plays football.

Sakura wrinkles her nose when she walks by on the way to school, and her friends laugh derisively at him, although he doesn’t notice, as always. It’s weird having so much dedication—seriously, does he even go to school?

She makes a point of not associating with people like that, even if they have a cute puppy.

But one day, the temptation is too much for her.

(You see, Sakura’s friends aren’t with her, because they had collectively agreed to miss school that day. However, Sakura couldn’t find the courage to defy her parents, so she was stuck going alone.)

She silently approaches him. Not without first looking around, of course, wouldn’t do for anyone to see her.

The puppy is watching Matsukaze from afar, so still it’s almost like a statue. She carefully reaches towards it, not making any noise, not even breathing—

The puppy barks. Loudly.

“Hey!” Sakura jumps, squeaking, and turns her head to look at Matsukaze, who is running towards her. “Who are you? Wanna play?”

“Um,” Sakura says, eloquently, “no.” She’s really busy, having just started the special gymnastics training.

By the face he makes, one would think she has shot him. Honestly, it can’t be the first time someone refuses him—in fact, she’s seen people doing it before as a dare or stupid things like that.

“Oh.” He pouts, and it's surprisingly cute. Sakura’s inner talent-spotter wakes up, and she eyes his legs.

Hm.

“...I’ll play with you. _If_ ,” she adds, when Matsukaze gets a dangerously hopeful face, “if you join the gymnastics club.”

“No,” he says instantly. It doesn’t hurt her pride, not even a bit. “I won’t have time for football that way!”

Sakura tilts her head. “But there’s no football club, and you can’t play alone. Without a team, a player is nothing.”

Even though that quote was worthy of a book, Matsukaze doesn’t give up. “But!” he says, flailing his arms. “Football is my friend! I won’t betray them!”

Sakura rubs her temples. _Boys._ “Football is not a person—it’s not even a thing. It’s like a… concept, yes, a concept. And concepts. Can’t. Be. _Betrayed_.”

He opens his mouth, probably to protest, and Sakura raises a hand. “I haven’t finished,” she snaps. His mouth closes indignantly. “Look, I won’t try to convince you of the logical, so. Let’s do one thing: I’ll play football, and you’ll do gymnastics. No clubs. Just… Try to show each other the good things of the sport. Good? Good.”

Matsukaze blinks. “Okay.” He doesn’t seem to get it, but Sakura doesn’t care

Turns out, football is fun. Especially when she dribbles Matsukaze perfectly and he trips, or when she shoots and he trips, or when she runs after him and he trips...

You get it.

Gymnastics is calmer, in the sense that no one ends up in the floor. Matsukaze has as much aptitude in the sport as she thought, and it suits his aesthetic. Honestly, with some tight trousers, he would be—

“Sakura!”

Sakura spins so fast she almost splits in two. Her parents are there, in the top of the hill, managing to look both worried and murderous. Why are they here? It’s not that late, is it? She looks at the sky, and...

“Um.” She’s in danger.

They gracefully stomp down the hill, and don’t stop until they are looming over her.

“You’re late. You skipped practice. Were you trying to give us a heart attack?”

“Mom, I’m—” She raises her hand, and Sakura’s mouth snaps shut.

“Don’t try to justify your actions, missy. You are better than that.” And to add emphasis, Mom shakes her head disappointedly. This situation has happened lots of times, but it’s still surprising how bad it makes her feel.

Dad takes her hand, and guides her home. While they are reciting the things she’s being punished without, Sakura glances back at Matsukaze, who looks like he’s debating if he should intervene or not.

She grants him a small smile and waves. He blinks and waves back, and doesn’t do anything.

\---

Sakura doesn’t join the football ‘club’—if it can even be called a club, it’s composed of one person—, and Matsukaze doesn’t join the gymnastics one either.

However, sometimes, when her friends aren’t there, Sakura goes to the beach, and they play together. It has become an ingrained routine, and she, although she’ll never admit it out loud, she loves it.

“What do you mean you’re moving out?”

Matsukaze scratches the back of his head, looking away. “I’m going to Inazuma. I—”

“ _Why_? Can’t you stay? Please.” Sakura claps her hands and winks; her cutest expression. Her face falls when Matsukaze shakes his head.

“No, I—It’s always been my dream!“

“Then get another one!”

“It doesn’t work like that!” He looks at the football at his feet—it has a lightning drawing in one of its… hexagons. “Sorry, Sakura, but I’m going.”

Sakura’s lips pull down. “Not fair! Just when I was starting to like football!” she says, as a last attempt to convince him.

Really, she’d go with him—if her parents wouldn’t punish her for life for trying, that is. But nooooooo, they have to be in the way, and now she’ll never see him again, and he’ll go and date some other person, and her life will be dull and lacking colour—

“Then you can continue playing, and when we see again, we can play!”

Sakura pouts, but her stomach is full of butterflies. “Promise?”

“Of course!” he answers, nodding earnestly. “When people play football, their paths always interconnect!”

She punches his arm weakly. “Pff, so cheesy.”

“ _I’m_ cheesy.”

“Don’t worry, I noticed.”

\---

(Years pass, and Sakura keeps playing football.

Even when it rains, she plays.

Even when her friends start turning against her, and calling her a weirdo, she plays.

Even when she should be training.

Even when ends up second in the world gymnastics championship.

Even when her parents are disappointed.

Even though she’s alone and there’s no team and she’s nothing.

She plays.)

\---

After five long years, Sakura finally sees him again.

She wants to speak to him privately, and she doesn’t get the chance until after the Royal Something And Other match—in which she rocked, by the way. _Not like the other newbies_ , she thinks, wrinkling her nose. What is the coach thinking?

Whatever, no use in wondering about unanswerable questions. She has better things to do.

“Matsukaze!”

Sakura catches him just as he’s exiting the boys’ changing rooms. He doesn’t look surprised to see her, which, duh? They had just played football together.

“Sakura, see? We met again!” He grins, and she sighs. Smartass. She gives him her best look to convey ‘football is the answer, I get it, shut up’, and, like in the old times, Matsukaze can read it perfectly. He nods sagely. “Football _is_ always the answer.”

“Yeah, I kept playing even though it wasn’t as much fun as when you were there,” she says, trying to emphasise her suffering. “Thank me for liking you so much.”

“Thanks!”

A kid with horrible hair, Mata-something, comes out of the changing rooms before she can answer. She shoots him an annoyed glance for interrupting, and he returns it, which she doesn’t expect. Hm, not so sweet-mannered, aren’t we?

Well, not her problem.

But, then, Mata-kid stays put next to Matsukaze, probably just to bother her, and Sakura makes her objective from now on to fuck with him as much as possible.

“Bye, Matsu— ...Tenma! See you!” she says in her cutest voice, even though she’s not looking away from Mata-kid’s eyes.

She can’t mouth anything with Tenma still looking, but she hopes her eyes say _I’ll send you to Hell_ as much as her heart does.

\---

An opportunity comes with what she’d later call The Wallet Incident.

Sakura doesn’t directly participate in that—honestly, she could see the wallet embarrassingly sticking out of Glasses Guy’s pockets from kilometres away. No, she just doesn’t pass the ball to Mata-kid, even when Tenma starts encouraging it.

She scores a goal with her amazing Normal Shoot™, and is in the spotlight for at least a few seconds.

It’s not much, but Mata-kid looks annoyed, and that’s what’s important.

\---

A few days later, Sakura’s with him and Tenma in the Steel Tower.

Tenma is telling some story about some guy, and it’s fun and enlightening, like everything he does, but—honestly? The only thing that stops her from grabbing Mata-kid’s feet and throwing him off the tower is that there would be witnesses.

Even though, her killing thirst must have been terrifying, because Mata-kid edges away from her. Sakura grins, satisfied, and grabs Tenma’s arm.

“Hey, can I go to your house?” she whispers, so Mata-kid doesn’t hear them. Sakura doesn’t want him tagging along, after all.

And so there they are now.

“Sasuke!” she fangirls, running towards the ex-puppy, and scratching its ear. He woofs with pleasure. “How are you, big guy? Who has grown a lot, eh? Who has grown a lot? You have!”

And there she stays all night, Tenma forgotten, until her parents call her and demand her to go home.

\---

Sakura doesn’t take the withdrawal test. She likes Tenma better than free money.

\---

During the break, Tenma signals to an empty room.

“What are you doing?” he asks the moment she enters. He is not grinning, and Sakura’s smile drops too. Is he angry? He looks angry.

Sakura tries the dumb tactic. “...What am I doing?” But it doesn’t work.

Tenma purses his lips and even frowns a little, and wow, she’s never seen him look more furious than this—not even when she got into a fight when they were little, and boy was he angry back then; he even raised his voice.

“Why are you stealing the ball from them? They’re your teammates!”

Sakura sniffs, irritated. Not even an angry pretty boy was going to deter her. “Well, Tenma, you know how my parents are.”

“Don’t put this on them. It was _your_ decision.”

“Well, but if they weren’t—”

Tenma grabs her hand, and her brain short-circuits. “ _Without a team, a player is nothing._ You said that, and you were right. I didn’t mention anything with Matatagi, but you have to trust someone in the team.”

“But I trust you,” she says, pouting. Ugh, she hates it when he throws her quotes back at her.

“Someone else.” He extends his pinky finger. “Promise?”

“Promise.” Sakura sighs, but intertwines their fingers anyway.

\---

The match goes swimmingly after that—well, as swimmingly as it can go with a team full of newbies in a world championship, which is to say, surprisingly okay.

Sakura passes the ball to, sigh, Matatagi, and he scores a goal. They even _high-five_ , and it feels _satisfying_. What the hell, am I right?

\---

Tsurugi is missing, kidnapped by some random princess, and Tenma has been locked in his room for _days_.

Sakura and Matatagi exchange disturbingly in sync glances, and her brain formulates the perfect plan. “I go in, you go away.” Before he has time to protest, she does exactly that.

She slams the door behind her, and counting in Matatagi being too baffled to knock, she turns her attention to Tenma. _Okay_ , she thinks, when she sees the real shitty state he’s in: completely buried under blankets, in a room so dark you can barely see the tip of your nose. _Okay. You can do this, Sakura._

“Tenma, drop this in this instant.”

...She can’t do it.

Tenma gets his head from under the blankets to look at her, and wow, horrible. He has bags under his eyes, and even messier hair. Sakura’s never seen a sadder thing in her life.

She sighs deeply, hopefully conveying the herculean task she’s about to perform, and sits on the edge of his bed.

“Okay, so. You were the one who told me that we would meet again if I kept playing football, and guess what? You were right.” See how he likes getting his own quote thrown at his face, ha. “Now, get your ass off this bed, and start playing. You’ll meet him again, after all...”

“...Football is always the answer,” he adds, smiling softly. “You’re right. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she says, and punches him weakly in the arm.


End file.
